Note 504 — TALE OF KING OMAR BIN AL-NU'UMAN AND HIS SONS SHARRKAN AND ZAU AL-MAKAN, AND WHAT BEFEL THEM OF THINGS SELD-SEEN AND PEREGRINE.[138] (continued 6)
Richard Francis Burton translation
The curse is pregnant with meaning. On Judgement-day the righteous shall arise with their faces shining gloriously: hence the blessing, "Bayyaz' Allaho wajh-ak" (=Allah whiten thy countenance!). But the wicked shall appear with faces scorched black and deformed by horror (Koran xxiv.): hence "God blacken thy brow!" I may observe that Easterns curse, the curse being everywhere the language of excited destructiveness; but only Westerns, and these chiefly English, swear, a practice utterly meaningless. "Damn it" without specifying what the "it" is, sounds like the speech of a naughty child anxious only to use a "wicked word." "Damn you!" is intelligible all the world over. It has given rise to "les goddams" in France; "Godámes" in the Brazil and "Gotáma" amongst the Somal of Eastern Africa, who learn it in Aden.